Comparison With Provinces
Provinces (国, kuni?) were established in an earlier era (mostly the 8th century) by the imperial court. The province was originally an administrative division of the central government, governed by governors sent by the imperial court in Kyoto for fixed terms. However by the late Heian era, central authority began to weaken and the governors find themselves increasingly challenged by local warriors. When the Kamakura Shogunate was established, it appointed samurai to each province as shugo daimyo, taking over responsibility for security and policing from court appointees.
By the Muromachi period, however, the imperial court had lost virtually all administrative powers. The shugo daimyo were able to centralize their rule within each province, through the destruction of the manor system and vassalising the kokujin. In doing so the daimyo slowly established unified and centralized governments within their territories. This process culminating in the han system, where each daimyo ruled their fiefs as unitary kingdoms, enjoying semi-independence from the shogunate where internal affairs are concerned.
Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, daimyo are defined as samurais whose fief produced more than 10,000 koku each year. A domain of a daimyo was what is known as a han. Retainers of daimyo, even if they receive more than 10,000 koku (e.g. Katakura Kagetsuna of Sendai, or Inada Kurōbei of Tokushima), are not daimyo themselves and therefore their fiefs are not considered hans. However, a daimyo may create a second domain from his han and invest one of his non-inheriting sons, thereby creating a cadet branch. Rulers of such a new domain may receive recognition from the Shogun and become a daimyo in his own right; nonetheless often the new han remain dominated by the senior branch of the family in the original han.
When the Tokugawa Shogunate fell, the han system remained in force for a few years into the Meiji period, but was subsequently replaced with the prefectures which remain in use today.
Read more about this topic: Han System
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